De-duplication weekend

I have outlined in some detail earlier that once we had the 1^st 8 libraries onto the system we would undertake a de-duplication process of the bibliographic records in Symphony.  This process occurred over the weekend. 

Given the time required to both de-duplicate records and also re-index the complete database SirsiDynix required quite a lengthy time to carry out this work.  After the last library closed on Saturday afternoon the process commenced, and ran through until early Sunday.  We had anticipated that it may run into Sunday opening times so took a conservative approach and asked libraries to work offline on Sunday afternoon.  This meant that items could be circulated but holds could not be placed through Enterprise of Symphony.  While this is a slight inconvenience and not ideal, the de-duplication process has been worth it for the benefits that customers and staff will receive.

We have learned from this 1st major database clean-up, and will apply this learning to any future work of this type that we need to carry out.

The de-duplication process managed to merge just over 100,000 bibliographic records with other existing records.  This means that there are more items are now attached to fewer bib records.  The benefits in terms of both uncluttering the catalogue and streamlining the holds process should be there for all to see.  Amongst the number of records merged we managed to do approximately 15,000 DVDs, which is a great outcome. 

We took a fairly conservative approach to this 1^st de-duplication process, and we will learn from it to see whether we can tweak the rules a bit more precisely to get even more records to merge.  The cataloguing / database maintenance group from libraries will examine the results we have obtained and assist us in improving our processes.

Also, staff can now start merging records where there are obvious duplicates that the de-duplication process did not detect.  Any merging needs to be done according to the agreed process and by authorised staff.